An MP of the “Servant of the People” party has admitted that the Ukrainian authorities want to force the clergy and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to join the OCU. He wrote in his author’s column on the Glavkom website.

“The UOC does not want to unite with the OCU, and that, in turn, with the UOC. No matter what churchmen say about it, the main problem of unification is that in the case of unification in the new structure will be three times more bishops than necessary. No one wants to lose status and privileges; even now there are far more hierarchs in the UOC than common sense covers! The government, in turn, is trying to solve two problems at the same time: to get rid of the Russian Church on its own territory and to reduce all Orthodox Christians in the OCU”, – wrote the MP.

At the same time, Dunda admits that the pressure through the adoption of the law № 8371, aimed at banning the UOC, did not bring the expected result and created a number of problems that the authorities now do not know how to solve.

“The attempt to pressurize the UOC by law failed, on the one hand, because of the loss of momentum, on the other hand, because the state was unable to adequately explain to the world community what it really wants from the church. As a result, there are not enough votes and will to pass the law,” – Dunda reasoned.

The MP added that, in his opinion, the problem with the UOC can be solved in three steps. If the UOC will fulfill the requirements of the authorities, then there will not be any claims to Her.

“It is desirable to start with the formation of the state’s own requirements to the UOC. In reality, there are only three of them. The state must publicly declare that in case of their fulfillment it will have no claims to the UOC. These are the requirements that it would be appropriate to publicly declare and offer the church to sign them as a pact of understanding with the state: 1) the UOC publicly and clearly recognizes Russia as the aggressor, the country that committed an unprovoked attack on Ukraine; 2) the UOC publicly and clearly recognizes the ideology of the “Russian world” as heretical and not ecclesiastical; 3) the UOC ceases any canonical, spiritual or any other communication with the ROC until the ROC, headed by the patriarch, repents of heresy and condemns the war; 4) If the UOC does this – flag in her hands, live in peace. If it does not – it will turn into an organization that justifies the war. If the church does not accept these conditions, the ban on its activities will be perceived by the world community as a justified action. If part of the bishops do not agree, it will fall under the ban”, – writes the MP.

In addition, Oleg Dunda wrote that in the case of breaking relations between the UOC and the ROC, the former will be out of the canonical field. Therefore, the MP suggested that the state should ask the Patriarch of Constantinople to grant the UOC a temporary canonical status, in which it will be until it can not be part of the OCU.

“After the adoption of the three points, the UOC will be in a completely non-canonical state, so to sweeten the pill, the state should ask the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant the UOC a “temporary canonical status.” It will be able to stay in this status for quite a long time, until the conditions for a calm church unification in Ukraine are formed. But the main goal will be achieved – there will be no structures affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine,” – Oleg Dunda summarized.

We will remind, earlier ex-metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who moved to the OCU in 2018, Alexander Drabinko told about his vision of the future of the UOC after the adoption of the law № 8371, aimed at banning the Church. He believes that there will not be a mass exodus of UOC clergy and believers to the OCU, while the UOC itself will “go into the catacombs”.